trying to work for, five, six years, mike huckabee. and you know, rubber chicken dinners in new hampshire and iowa and south carolina. got 100% name i.d., a national donor network.

all given to him in an instant. so that makes him a formidable presence i think in the party going forward, if we were to looking at 2020, or beyond there. >> jamie, go ahead, jump in, jim. >> one of the people she didn't name, her own governor, nikki haley i think would probably be on the agenda in 2020. you know, she is finishing her second term now. there is a prospect of a woman in the white house. she would be an attractive female candidate on the republican side so. you have to include her. >> paul ryan and who knows. >> they seem to have a deep bench. republicans have a much, much deeper bench of potential presidents who have no bench really. >> that is one of the worries if you talk to democrats about the vp selection process on their end is, tim kaine is probably, like the main all-star of what

the future of the democrat bench could look like. but tom vilsack is someone, not exactly a new exciting name. some of the folks being left out of the conversation there, like the castro brothers or others that some of the youth in the party, that, this is a missed opportunity to elevate their profiles nationally. >> i think we're going to move along. >> we're done? >> i was looking for, the gentleman with the sign. >> i'm your sign. i'm the sign. thank you, again, to our audience online, live streaming on our 29 mcclatchy websites. and to our audience and thank you, jim, jamie, kevin, to our hosts. so we'll have a, we'll be hosting a reception in this space tomorrow evening from 4:00 to 7:00. we welcome you back for that. we'll be at the democratic national convention next week

with two more breakfasts. thank you very much. >> thank you. [applause] [inaudible conversations]. >> hawaii representative mark takai died yesterday at his home in oahu. he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. after his diagnosis worsened in may he did not seek reelection. he was 49 years old. in a statement released yesterday, president obama said, mark was always a fighter. it east the spirit he brought to more than two decades of public service on behalf of the people of hawaii. he stood up for america's most vulnerable and he championed our troops and veterans and proudly

wore our nation's uniform. his relentless push for cancer research inspired countless americans fighting the same battle as him. simply put, our country is bert off with mark's contributions. c-span sat down with the freshman congressman last year after he took office. let's watch. >> congressman mark takai, representing first district in that state. how many congressional districts in hawaii? >> two. we have four members of our con expressional delegation, two senators, two congresspeople. no what do you think of washington? >> i love it. i have always visited d.c. i would, probably go to see our congressional delegation about every quarter. never in my wildest dreams did i ever imagine i would be sitting here as a member of congress. >> you would visit them because you were a member of the legislature. >> member of the legislature.

i did some hill visits based on my being a member of the national guard. there were a few opportunities to come to washington d.c. and it was always a street. >> obviously a long way. now that you're a member of the house, how often do you bet back to the district? >> you know, my family, one of the first things we decided on once i decided to run for congress was where our family was going to stay. we have two very young kids. matthew is 13, cooler is 12. the deal was daddy works in d.c. and my family's at home. so i try to go home as much as possible. not only for my family, to see them, which is important, but also being a new member of congress i think it is always important to make sure you go back home and you work in the district or in hawaii for me. >> i think one of the items you brought from your office is a picture of your family. >> yeah. >> we'll show that to our viewers. your family is back in hawaii mainly. >> right, right.

and that's very appropriate. that was the day i made my decision to run for congress august 8, 2013. >> what prompted that decision? >> it was a lot of people coming forward. there were some members of congress that talked to me but you know truthfully the reason why i'm here is unfortunately because senator inouye passed away. when senator inouye passed away, and there was a lot of movement in our delegation. because of that the member previous to me decided to run for senate and there was a spot open. so in 2013 august, in fact august 8, we made that decision. >> how much convincing did it take for your family? >> well, the biggest decision was where they were going to live. i think once we got over that, and they knew they were going to stay home with their friends and my wife, sammy and her family and my family, everything was all good at that point. >> we're coming off not long

ago, congressional recess, district work period. when you go back home, not just to go to sandy beaches back home but also to work. are you able to separate out your personal life and also attend to those things back in your district? >> believe it or not, i was in the legislature 20 years prior. there is almost no separation especially in hawaii. when you're out with your family, we have dinner, let's say at the closest shopping mall to our house which is near pearl harbor, pearl ridge. i'm always working. so i'm trying my best to spend family time with my family but you know my kids grew up with dad being in the legislature. now they're growing up with me being in congress. i go to the soccer games or the swimming meets with our kids. always on. >> you spoke about your coming here as a member of the military. when did you begin serving? >> july 19th, 1999.

>> did you serve in iraq? >> i served in kuwait as part of operation iraqi freedom in 2009. i'm a proud member of the hawaii army national guard, right now serving as lieutenant colonel. >> do you still have demands on your time for national guard? >> absolutely. in my year, the reason why i know when i started that is our anniversary date. every year you have to have so many days of service to have a good year. so mine is coming up and i'm working hard to make sure it's a food year. >> you're on the armed services committee. what would you like to see accomplished? >> i'm very proud of what we recently accomplished. we spent the first four months working on the defense bill, otherwise known as the national defense authorization act and it's a hard, it's a tough measure, you know, because it is all inclusive but at the same time you work hard on its first

four months. you get it done. then we can move on to other things. we were proud to have introduced 29 amendments which 28 passed. we felt like we were pretty successful. >> you come in as a freshman member but do you think your time in the military got the ear of other members of the armed services committee because of your service? >> i would think so. i sit next to ruben gallagos. another veteran. of the seth moulton is alongside us as well. in terms of freshman class on the democratic side. there are a number of veterans on the republican side as well. i think our main point being in sure that our perspective members of the military and their perspectives are heard. >> from an organizational standpoint how does congress compare to the military? >> that's a good question. no one's ever asked me that. i think in some ways it compares

pretty well because everything in the military is about leadership and chain of command. in congress it's sort of like that most of the time. so in that way, we have chairman running our committees. we have the speaker and majority leader running boathouse of congress. we have a general running the national guard in hawaii and everybody follows his direction so i think in some ways it's like that but in others, you know, there is much more flexibility and freedom being in the legislative branch and in congress because i wouldn't necessarily tell the general, no. but in some cases you can tell leadership here whether, you know, i'm a democrat, proud democrat. i can tell leadership and leader pelosi in some cases it is okay. >> could you see yourself in a

leadership position, on a committee or in other areas? >> absolutely. in fact fortunately this year i serve as ranking member of the contracting in the workforce subcommittee and small business committee. so we were very fortunate, and definitely privileged to have the opportunity to be the lead democrat in a subcommittee right now. in the future, you know, i think it is important for hawaii. our family, when we made the decision, i told them, as well as my close friends, and supporters, that the commitment to run for congress in this particular seat, especially for a small delegation like we have in hawaii is a long-term commitment. if given the privilege of serving for many years i think it is important for to us build senority here in the house. >> obviously a lot of committee hearings are covered on c-span, the c-span networks and do you ever get frustrated by limited amount of time you get to ask a witness a question, typically sort of five minutes on some of these hearings?

is that just not enough to get your questions answered? >> well, being in the hawaii state legislature where there was no limit, i can appreciate the five minutes. in fact if you take a look at armed services committee with nearly 70 members, if everybody had unlimited amount of time we would be there for days. so i think that over time congress has developed this time limit policy of five minutes. in some cases, in terms of the floor, one minute, and it's worked pretty well. if you can't say something within the one minute on the floor, if you can't say something in five minutes in committee, you've got to rework your message. >> going back to your campaign and that august 2013 decision to run, how well funded were you at the time? how watches a concern and how do you typically continue your fund-raising. >> we started from nothing.

we were first time running a congressional race and we started from scratch. i learned very early on in order to win a congressional race you have to put together a great team. i credit with tammy duckworth really helping me through that. tammy and i are college classmates. i credit myself with helping her get to run for congress in 2008 and we helped her again in 2012. i was here for her confirmation hearing when she was assistant secretary of the va. i'm very close to her. she told me, mark, don't worry, i will let you have my whole team. you run with our team. we'll work hard to race money. i didn't have to worry about the creation of a team because tammy helped me there. every single member of her team, media, poll, print, even fund-raising was her team. so we did that and we just focused on fund-raising and we, like i said, we started from nothing. we were trying to raise about a million dollars for the primary.

we came in a little bit short. so that delayed our, our tv buys but we had one solid month of tv and that got us over the top. now, incredible, we started 20 points down. we won by 18. so we swung that 38 points which is a lot of work. >> does it feel like though, that you have to continually fund raise? are you able to focus on the legislative work and the constituent work as much as you'd like to? >> you know, just right now unfortunately nature of the job but we are spending considerable amount of time fund-raising. and, networking and developing relationships, both here in d.c. and also in hawaii. you know, it is expensive to run a congressional campaign. our entire campaign cost

1.8 million. we ran in a short time, a general election campaign cost over a million bucks. most goes to the tv. if you look at tv market in hawaii, it is a lot cheaper than anywhere else. we're buying a point at $100 whereas some of the big markets are spending closer to $1000 a point and yet we need that tv. so we're going to keep on raising money because it's important for us to get our message out. >> what one aspect of hawaii do you think your fellow members typically not get about the state? >> that is a very good question. you know i had the opportunity to travel to asia with cordell pelosi, there were 10 of us. a bipartisan delegation. i was only freshman. i had honor not only representing the freshman class, has, armed services. through that visit and the visit to the pacific command brief,

surprisingly many senior members of our delegation were unaware of the importance of hawaii being the strategic hub and headquarters for our military across asia-pacific and indian ocean. so i think that in and of itself is important to talk about because i'm constantly talking to colleagues, inviting them to hawaii and letting them know how strategically important hawaii is for the united states. >> reading about your background, you were one of the first in hawaii to buy a nissan leaf alternate fuel vehicle. >> right. >> what prompted that decision? >> well that goes back to, truthfully goes back to me being deployed in the middle east in 2009. hawaii is a very buell place but we have our challenges. we are what i call the most

isolated, populated land mass in the entire world. and because of that, the need to be more sustainable is critical. the cost of live something high in hawaii. i believe, mainly because of the fact that we're not sustainable as we need to be. so i served in the middle east. i looked around, kind of wondered why we were fighting a war half a world away from hawaii and i realized it was partially because of oil, black gold. so when i got home, i told my wife, you know, we have to put these panels on our roof. she is like, what? i said we're going to make electricity from the sun. she thought i was crazy. two months after that, she was telling all her friends, you know what? our electric bill is zero. it is unbelievable, but mark, we put these things on our roof, and now we're not paying electricity. well, around that time nissan had the early adopters could log

on to the internet and order their cars. so i ordered the car. i was, like you said one of the first. >> what year was that? >> that was five years ago from now. so 2010. >> yeah. >> i'm on my third leaf. every two years i get a new one. so i just picked up my third one in april. >> does it feel like other members of your state or other hawaiians picked up the trend of alternative energy? >> if everybody could they would harness the sun. not everybody is as fortunate as my family. we live in single-family home, so we have challengers and renters and people that live in condos or townhomes don't have opportunities they've. even in the legislature we're pushing for these measures that would do more for the community as a whole and move us towards sustainability as quickly as possible. >> most main landers come to hawaii either on vacation or with the military.

you were born and raised in hawaii. what took you from hawaii to the main land first? what was your first trip back to the main land? >> you know, that was probably when i was five years old to go to disneyland in california. a lot of people travel to california from hawaii and many people still go to disneyland. that was probably my first trip but you know, i started swimming when my family was living, we were living in guam. >> competitively? >> competitively. so swimming brought me to the main land probably twice a year. >> was your dad in the military? >> my dad worked for the federal government. so he, we got stationed and we were treated just like military for about three years from fifth grade to 7th grade. i lived in guam. >> earlier on you mentioned senator inouye. you brought a picture along of senator inouye. >> this picture is in my office. came by way the inouye legacy fund and my parents bought it at a democratic auction.

>> tell us about the people in the picture. >> okay. so far left is senator inouye. in the middle is patty mink, a congresswoman from hawaii and on the far right, spark watson, a another from hawaii. >> state senator? >> no. these are members of the congressional delegation. i tell the story about about every day about you know, what it's like to be here representing hawaii and you know, i have many so -- stories about senator inouye and many stories about patsy mink. i talk about being on shoulders of people like them. you all know it because we work here but the halls of congress, especially capitol hill, it's a very different place at night when all of the tourists and all the tour groups are gone and we're walking to or from votes in the capitol. i heard stories about senator inouye talking about these long nights in the capitol. in fact he had his office as a

senate president pro tem right in the capitol, in the capitol. it is surreal experience to be walking through the halls and just hearing your footsteps and realizing that these people who came before me, also represented the state of hawaii. in fact senator inouye was the very first member, elected member of congress and he came right after hawaii became a state. >> are there traditions in the hawaii yandell mitigation most people won't know about? a piece of memorabilia or something that is passed down from member to member regardless of their party? >> nothing's been passed down. we've gone into the cage, the cage upstairs and that has, you know, some memorabilia from other members and i pulled out some of the portraits and the artwork from previous members but i think, in terms of hawaii, wee v